The woman who died Saturday afternoon when she jumped into a canal near Loveland to save a puppy has been identified as Brittany R. Schult, 23.

The Larimer County Coroner today ruled her death an accidental drowning.

Schult lived at Eden Valley Institute, a Seventh-day Adventist mission southwest of Masonville. She was a staff member who worked on Eden Valley’s organic farm, president Frank Fournier said.

“It broke our hearts,” Fournier said of Schult’s death.

Fournier said Schult was walking her dog when the puppy jumped or fell into the canal, which is west of Eden Valley’s 550 acre complex. “She tried to rescue the dog and fell in,” he said.

Loveland Fire and Rescue Operations Chief Ned Sparks said the accident happened shortly before 3 p.m. Saturday as the woman and friend were walking near the Charles Hansen Feeder Canal.

The puppy made it out of the canal safely, but the woman was swept away in the current. Her friend sought help. Sparks said the water was about 40 degrees and 5-feet deep.

Signs along the canal warn of “certain death” because of the swift current moving frigid water from the Big Thompson River north to Horsetooth Reservoir.

Divers from Loveland Fire and Rescue, the Berthoud Fire Protection District and the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office recovered the woman’s body around 7 p.m., he said. She was found several miles north of where she fell in.

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